Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru Review

This is review number one hundred and eighty nine. This is part of the Winter 2013 lineup. The anime I’ll be reviewing is Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru or “My Girlfriend and Childhood Friend Fight Too Much”. What is up with light novels as painfully long titles? It’s getting ridiculous. Anyways, this is a cute harem anime that I really enjoyed watching. It’s a thirteen episode anime about a guy and four girls and a club where they fool around in. Let’s read on.

Story

The anime is about Eita Kidou, a guy who recently recovered from his eight grade syndrome to fully focus on his studies. He has no time for anything but studying. He does enjoy the company of his childhood friend, Chiwa Harusaki. Eita does not like the idea of being in love. He believes it’s ridiculous and he has no need for it. Imagine his surprise though when the hottest girl in school, with her blue eyes and silver hair, suddenly declared to the world that she is in love with him. Something is certainly not right and Eita soon meets another person that does not believe in love. Masuzu Natsukawa decided to make a deal with Eita. Be her boyfriend or else.

Taking the Pants Off

My Girlfriend and Childhood friend fight too much. This sounds like an intriguing title, doesn’t it? I was also honestly hooked by its premise. A romantic comedy featuring a love triangle with a girl the main character knew all his life and a girl so beautiful that every guy on school turns her head towards her are pitted against each other to gain the affection of the lucky bastard. I love it. This premise does wonders and has limitless possibilities, to be honest. Imagine my shock when this anime decided that a RomCom love triangle is not enough. Let’s put more cliché in it. Why settle for an exciting love story when you turn the whole thing upside down and make it a harem anime. Of course, duh! A harem is certainly more interesting but wait, there’s more. Let’s put the harem in a club. Yeah, that’ll f*cking work. Now obviously you can tell by now that this anime is misleading. It’s not a story about “my girlfriend and my childhood friend are fighting a lot” but rather “four girls trying to get my affection while I let them hang on a hook and enjoy them all at the same time”. I certainly disapprove but damn it, a good anime is a good anime.

The anime started out pretty great. Eita does not believe in love and prefer to drown himself in his studies. He is close to his childhood friend though that they even eat together in his house. One day, a hot girl suddenly became his girlfriend. They’re a “fake” couple though because she only needs him so other guys can back off and leave her in peace. Eita agreed simply because the girl is evil. There’s more to it than that but I feel like I’m already spoiling too much. This was a really wonderful premise because the childhood friend now has a reason to seriously pursue Eita but she can’t do anything daring because the guy has a girlfriend. The fake girlfriend does not love Eita though but what do you think will happen when she sees just how close the two childhood friends are? She might get aggressive as well and this will eventually become a tug of war for the guy.

The anime was smart about it too. Since the story is pretty simple, it was very character driven. So as the anime progresses, we slowly learn more about the characters. We see the deep bond of the two childhood friend, that I personally find adorable, because it was a great way for the fake girlfriend to find a reason to retaliate. We also see the fake girlfriend slowly fleshed out. She is very mysterious. The anime nicely played that so it can get a chance to introduce so backstory as intriguing as the story of the two childhood friends. It all supports the love triangle pretty nicely and I was just instantly hooked at how the anime handled this story. Things slowly took a cliché heavy right turn though for some odd reason.

The love triangle was suddenly downplayed. The three characters suddenly decided to make a club. I’m guessing it was to take advantage of the comedy and that is why the club is about “young maidens” trying to become popular. This club pretty much involves Masuzu telling Chiwa that she will give her advice to become as popular as her. Masuzu is a bit of a masochist though and if you add her mysterious personality then you had a pretty unpredictable club that is guaranteed to make you laugh. I honestly felt the anime didn’t need this one though. It’s like taking a page from Haganai and the Neighbor’s club minus the club related humor. I think the anime had something good enough for people to look out for so I don’t understand the formation of the club. As the anime progresses, the whole thing became painfully clear though. There were other members. Some new girls are introduced and they eventually declared their love for Eita as well. This cute love triangle suddenly became a goddamn harem.

The anime was soon about four girls trying to make Eita fall in love with them. Eita soon became the lucky guy that has a heart of gold that accommodates four girls in his life. The fake girlfriend angle no longer mattered. It was still a component of the anime but it needed to take a back seat so other girls can have some time with Eita. The anime must’ve thought that it needed more to make the show interesting so it decided to become a generic harem anime. It makes sense…I guess. No, wait. Actually, I honestly don’t get it. To be fair, the harem aspect of the anime is pretty entertaining though. The various characters were interesting in their own right and the lengths they go to make Eita look at them had their own charm to it that I do appreciate. When all the harem characters come together then you are guaranteed to be entertained simply because of how the character interaction was so vibrant. This was actually the aspect of the anime that made me watch it till the end. It just had amazing characters.

Like I said, this was a character driven anime and it was smart at presenting this element of the show. The harem aspect of the anime was really interesting not because of the girls throwing themselves at Eita but because the anime nicely featured four different love stories in the anime. At first, there were just two. Eita and his childhood friend already had a cute relationship to begin with and the girl suddenly wants more. The fake girlfriend, who is a bit hard to read, was declaring to the world that they are a couple and every moment they are alone, you can see that these two has something going on. The new characters had their own unique story for loving Eita as well. The anime really took the time for the viewers to slowly understand the characters. Their personalities, backstory and individual reasons for loving Eita were all explored. This made the harem pretty unique. You have four girls with four different love stories trying to get Eita for themselves. They are all cute and they all had their own romantic touch. As you watch the anime, the characters are really the only reason you’re watching this show. You want to see their love stories progress while they try to compete with each other. This made the heavily clichéd concept of a harem and a club pretty justifiable. As a reviewer, I appreciate that. As an anime fan, I am a bit annoyed by it though.

The characters are the biggest selling point of the anime. The story is really just for structure. It was the characters that made the anime really interesting. Eita is the main character. He is the typical guy that you’d expect in a harem. He has a pretty complex personality though because he can make four girls with different wave lengths fall in love with him. I am also a fan of those moments where he sounds like he’s saying something cool while people beat the crap out of him. The scenes don’t really make a lot of sense but it’s pretty funny yet cool in a weird pathetic way. Chiwa is the childhood friend. She is the loud type and a bit childish. Her personality gradually becomes more complex though but I also appreciate how honest she is. It doubles her cuteness factor and makes me want to cheer for her a lot. Masuzu is the beautiful girl. She is a huge fan of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. I find it a bit funny because I just recently saw the anime so I understood all the references in the show made. She is a bit of a masochist and she is a self-proclaimed “faker” who believes that Eita is just as big of a faker as she is. There is obviously something wrong with her and we slowly see the extent of that as the anime progresses. The other two girls are Ai Fuyuumi and Himeka Akishino. Ai Fuyumi is the tsundere of the group. Her tsun and dere attitude is very extreme to the point where she is just f*cking adorable. Himeka is the quiet one and she also has Eight Grade Syndrome. I’m actually having a hard time explaining it but let’s just say that she thinks she is the “Burning Pudding Princess”. I believe she is also the most straight forward character in the group because her EGS pretty much defines her but she is definitely the scene stealer because everything she does is just very awesome.

There aren’t a lot of side characters. Some are really just plot devices to move the anime along. I do love those antagonistic personalities in the anime. There are some side characters in the anime that are just super b*tchy or massive pricks that they often make fun of the main characters. Like I said, plot devices that make the main characters look great. Especially Eita who would stand up to them only to get his ass kicked. If they aren’t beating Eita then they are mostly used to flesh out the characters. Nothing complicated about them and the focus is really on the main characters.

The Comedy of the anime is pretty great. Once again, it stems from the characters. Most of the jokes are about the simple craziness of the characters as they try to handle their affection for Eita. Most times it is about Eita having some sort of romantic misadventure with a character. With the individually unique personalities, there is a lot to enjoy when it comes to the comedy. You’ll often never know what the anime will pull off next and I think that was a smart approach.

At first the anime looks like a show that relies too much on cliché to make it work. There are just too many things in the anime like the Eight Grade Syndrome, the characters making a club and a generic harem that sounds like it will be useless clutter. The anime was able to incorporate all of these cliché to the story though and the result is really amazing. I couldn’t get enough of it and the experience is pretty great. I am still not convinced a harem should replace a love triangle though. I can still picture in my head the possibilities of the anime had it decided to stick with two girls and their insistence for the guy. I just can’t overlook it and I personally blame the harem for how the potential of the anime fizzled out towards the end. I’ll just keep my bias to myself though.

Sight and Sound

The character design is pretty amazing. They are still a bit generic but the individual looks of the characters are really great. The girls all had a distinct look to them that compliments their personalities. They all have different height, body type and style. I’m actually impressed at the amount of detail given to the characters. The hair style of the characters all differ and the small details on their faces are all different as well. Their individual outfits are also pretty different. I notice that Chiwa especially like to wear childish clothes with bright colors on them while Masuzu prefers hiding her body with long dresses. The school uniform is pretty great. It doesn’t have a lot of detail on it but it makes the characters great eye candy. Eita is the typical main character. He doesn’t have much on him aside from his normal look.

The animation is pretty decent. The color palette of the anime is a bit faded so it does make the anime look different. The movements of the characters are nicely animated. A lot of girls blush and panic where you can see the frame rate being really high. The smooth transitions and the way the animation keeps the eye candy appeal intact are really impressive. I don’t really doubt A-1 pictures delivering short when it comes to the animation. The various hugging kissing scenes are also nicely done. The personality of the characters comes through pretty nicely. There’s not a lot of standout animation scenes though except maybe the fight scene in the first half of the anime where Eita was being beaten by some dudes.

The anime’s OP is “Girlish Lover” by Mizukara wo Enshutsu Suru Otome no Kai (Chinatsu Akasaki, Yukari Tamura, Hisako Kanemoto, Ai Kayano). It’s sung by the girls in the anime. It’s a really cute song and sounds a bit bubbly. The individual voices of the characters stand out pretty nicely and they blend well together. It’s a rather slow paced song that really just highlights the cute voices of the singers. The chorus is really catchy though. The OP sequence features the four girls acting all cute in a scene full of cute things. It’s super duper adorable and that’s really it.

The ED sequence is “W:Wonder tale” by Yukari Tamura. She voiced Masuzu and her voice is really pretty. It’s really just like the OP. it’s cute and bubbly but this one started out a bit mellow. The chorus is really cute though and Yukari’s voice is a great stand out. The ED sequence features the four girls sleeping and a montage of like a dream world or something. It’s pretty great because it has a story book vibe to it that is fun to watch. It ends with the characters all sleeping in a really large bed because it can fit all four of them. It must be nice having such a huge bed to sleep in.

Overall Score

7/10 “Cliché heavy that should’ve been a great flaw yet it is a huge strength for this anime”

This is a really nice character driven anime that’ll really entertain you. The show never got boring because it had strong characters to feature. The harem aspect is pretty great and you’ll be surprised how it does not rely on fan service to make it interesting. If you enjoy harem anime that isn’t Ecchi then you’ll love this one. If you enjoy character centered anime then you won’t regret picking this one up. I recommend it.